Ridley Scott, director of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Set for release on June 8th, 2012 (USA) this film marks Ridley Scott's return to the SCIFI genre, for which he made the incredible films BLADE RUNNER and ALIEN. The film started off as a prequel to ALIEN, since then, it's become extremely unclear if it still is. Michael Fassbender, one of the main stars, claims it is very related, and there have been many unconfirmed reports of xenomorphs and space jockeys being constructed for the film.

At the moment, besides the fact no-one can make up their mind as to this film being related to Alien or not, we don't know much about it. Except for the cast, which will consist of Noomi Rapace as the film's star, playing a character named "Elizabeth Shaw". Also in the film will be Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, and Charlize Theron.

David Lindelof, one of the writers for Lost, was hired to take on writing duties for this film. He ended up throwing out most of the old script and making something much bigger. Here's a recent interview with him, explaining this film (a little):

Another bit of info we have is that Neville Page, the designed who worked on the aliens in Avatar, Cloverfield, and Star Trek, will also be helping with this film to design something. Here's a recent quote from him in regards to working on this film:

I have no idea if this is gonna work or not. It has a lot working for and against it. But I really hope it works out and results in an awesome alien sequel which we haven't had in ages. For those that don't know, Ridley Scott was the director of Alien.

In an interview awhile back, Ridley described it as a "Whole new bag of tricks" so at least he's making an effort to give us something new. There's also the news that he's getting Giger, the guy that created the Alien design, to help out:

The one thing that has me unsure is if Ridley is gonna be able to pull this off or not. Sure he's the guy that made Blade Runner and Alien, but it's been ~24 years since he last made a scifi/fantasy movie, so hopefully he hasn't lost his touch. It's really sucks Dan O'Bannon, the guy that wrote the first, died last year. Would've been awesome to have had him on this as well. The guy that appears to be writing it I can't really make any decisions on, since this is his first film.

UPDATE: It's now confirmed to be two films, not just one. And they will be shot in 3D using updated "Avatar" cameras.

SO yeah, for those that still remember this: rumors had been going about that a certain script that was getting passed along the internet was the script for the film. I hadn't been hearing very good things about it but that doesn't matter anymore, as one of the writers for Lost was hired to do rewrites. But there are still some big problems going on now. Ridley wants a HUGE budgeted ($250 million), R rated movie. Fox wants that budget cut big time and a more commercial friendly rating of PG13. So now we just have to wait and see what exactly is going to happen with that. Hopefully this will all still be worth the wait.

UPDATE 3:

HR Giger is confirmed as being on board now, and the film will apparently be just ONE movie, and not the 2 parter we were expecting.

I'm also a bit unsure on the canon of this, the android doctor in 'Alien' said that the Facehuggers were the first aliens ever found by humans.

For all Ash knew anyway, and who is to say the characters of this new movie will survive or even find their way back home, I mean look what happened to Ripley at the end of the first film alone. Not to mention she was the only one to survive past Aliens.

I have to wonder what they have planned for the 3D though and it'll be nice to see the man himself at the controls.

Aliens and predators shouldn't be in the same universe, Predator is set in modern times and alien is in the future.

Wasn't their an Alien skull in the ship in Predator 2? Been a while since I watched it so can't remember that well. Although saying that I have no idea what the canon is, never looked into it beyond the films and games.

Honestly I don't want to know anything about the Space Jockey or where the Xenomorphs came from. It's one of those things that would spoil the mysteriousness of the first movie. I also don't like the idea of a new movie, even with Ridley Scott back at the helm. The atmosphere and gritty feel that the original Alien had was perfect. Everything from the acting to the effects, props and just overall cinematography was so real and authentic.

I don't care for the idea of a new film because no matter who is directing and working on it the modern film and special effects techniques used will never compare to what made the original film such a masterpiece. I don't care how advanced computer generated effects are, they will never compare to a guy with a big squib strapped to his chest and a puppet prop controlled by a guy with a stick hiding under a table in my opinion. And for the love of god I am so sick of those CGI Xenomorphs in the silly AvP movies and that 4th disgrace of a sequel that shall-not-be-named. They need to get a 8 foot guy back in the suit.

While I may end up eating my words and maybe even loosing thousands of dollars in bets, I'll remain sceptical that a new film will even compare to the level excellence the first film had. After all Alien is considered one of the most inspirational and well known science fiction films ever made. I doubt any hardcore Alien fan or film critic will go easy on a new film, especially one thats done by the original director.

For all Ash knew anyway, and who is to say the characters of this new movie will survive or even find their way back home, I mean look what happened to Ripley at the end of the first film alone. Not to mention she was the only one to survive past Aliens.

Obviously someone in The Company knew about the presence of alien life on that remote planetoid.

Wasn't their an Alien skull in the ship in Predator 2? Been a while since I watched it so can't remember that well. Although saying that I have no idea what the canon is, never looked into it beyond the films and games.

Was a debate in the Predators thread about this, I think. The actual Alien skull has two creepy-as-shit eye sockets on the front of it, the one in Predator 2 doesn't.